He has lost eight pounds since January to drop to 198, and his weight loss is paying dividends on the basketball court.

On Sunday, Nelson provided one of his most energetic performances of the season and routinely outfought much taller Los Angeles Lakers players for rebounds. The diminutive point guard scored 15 points, collected nine boards and dished out seven assists to help the Orlando Magic defeat the defending world champs 96-94 at Amway Arena.

"There's no way we win that game without the plays he was making," Orlando coach Stan Van Gundy said. "He was phenomenal. To get nine rebounds in a game like that against the biggest team in the league, and Jameer's the smallest guy on the floor . . . he's in there fighting the entire time."

The performance provided perhaps the best evidence yet that Nelson has recovered fully from a pair of surgeries, one in Feb. 2009 to fix his right shoulder's labrum and another on Nov. 18 to repair torn meniscus cartilage in his left knee.

Nine months ago, Nelson played much differently against the Lakers. He faced them in the NBA Finals after he had missed the final 35 games of the regular season and the first three rounds of the playoffs because of the shoulder injury.

"That's back in the past," Nelson said. "I wasn't 100 percent, and they didn't get a full dosage of me. They know the type of player I am over in their locker room and I know the type of player I am."

Lamar Odom definitely knows. In one sequence Sunday, the 6-foot-10 Lakers forward prepared to collect an easy rebound only to have Nelson speed past and grab the ball out of midair.

Nelson is listed as 6 feet tall, and his weight rose to 206 pounds after he hurt his knee in mid-November. Eight pounds have come off over the last two months, and he reports that his knee feels better and his stamina has improved.

He wasn't perfect Sunday. He made only five of the 14 shots he attempted, and missed a key free throw with 20.6 seconds remaining in regulation.

But teammates still raved about him — even though some of that praise was a bit backhanded.

"I think he was the second-best rebounder on the floor tonight, which is great coming from a guy who's under 5-5," Magic center Dwight Howard joked. "To be a dwarf, it's unbelievable to see a guy like Jameer get up and rebound. He's bar-none the best dwarf to ever rebound."

Read Josh Robbins' blog at OrlandoSentinel.com/magicblog and e-mail him at jrobbins@orlandosentinel.com. Subscribe to our Magic e-mail newsletter at OrlandoSentinel.com/newsletters.